NCJ Number
188210
Date Published
2000
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This report uses official national statistics to detail the numbers of inmates held in correctional institutions in some 200 independent countries and dependent territories to indicate differences in the level of imprisonment across the world and make possible an estimate of the total world prison population.
Abstract
The data reveal that penal institutions throughout the world hold some 8.6 million people, either as pretrial detainees or as convicted and sentenced offenders. Half these inmates are in the United States (1.85 million), China (1.4 million), and Russia (1.05 million). Russia’s rate of 730 inmates per 100,000 of the national population is the highest in the world. The next highest rates are in the United States (680), the Cayman Islands (665), Belarus (575), Kazakhstan (495), the Bahamas (485), the United States Virgin Islands (475), Belize (460), Bermuda (445), and Kyrgyzstan (440). However, 64 percent of countries have rates of 150 or below. The United Kingdom’s rate of 125 per 100,000 of the national population places it at about the midpoint in the world list and as the second highest in the European Union. Prison population rates vary considerably between and within different regions in the world and are increasing in many parts of the world. Tables